Women Shop on Venus, Men Shop on Mars

The differences between female and male brains have always been the subject of study for anthropologists, psychologists and, more recently, for neuroscientists. We all agree women are better at multitasking, while men have a higher ability to focus on one goal and proceed with perseverence to its achievement. We know that women tend to pay attention to details, while men tend to see the big picture. In marketing, details like this can make the difference between winning or losing, while we witness the rise of the women-driven economy. At the Neuromarketing in Retail conference, Miss Marketing author Mabel Nummerdor explained why retailers have to take into account these differences when outlining their strategies.Most of the behavioral research is dedicated to male behavior, especially when it comes to negative situations. In medicine, for example, most of the tests are made on men, mainly because women react differently according to their hormonal phases. But isn’t this worth taking into account when developing a new medicine and writing the prospect of it? From the genetic perspective, gender is a very interesting concept. For example, men are 98,7% similar to a male chimp while the gender differences between men and women are 1,5%. One could say that men are as different from women as they are from chimps! “This difference is definitely worth taking into account in marketing business”, Nummerdor emphasized during her presentation.

In order to get the best out of these differences in marketing, you need to start looking at cultural differences and correlate that with neuro-scientific facts. At the neurological level, the differences between genders were basically explained through the hemispheric dominance theory: women tend to use their right hemisphere more (emotions and pragmatic thinking), while men operate mostly in the left hemisphere (analytics, mathematics, critical thinking etc.). We now know that that theory is a myth. The differences between male and female brains stand in the neurological connections of the brain, and women have more white matter than men. “They are also connecting both hemispheres, which makes women see all the details. The memory region of the brain is bigger in women, while estrogen serves as a neurotransmitter for emotions – it basically glues emotions to memories. That’s why a woman can recall all the details of a story and she can even remember how she felt at that moment”, says the author of Miss Marketing.

So, women want to buy a car, a perfume, organize a party or go to the mall mostly because they have emotional reasons for that. They also have longer shopping lists than men. They are better at interpreting facial expressions, so if you want your product or brand to sell, make it look like a person. The basic instincts such as conservation and reproduction are also expressed differently – men tend to be more competitive, while women try to connect and build strong relationships, therefore developing higher empathy levels.

Men have to concentrate on themselves in order to be different and be noticed; women tend to concentrate on the others. According to a study cited by Nummerdor, men use an average of 900 words a day while women use 2900! Women have a preference for symmetric communications – when two women talk, they automatically talk about things that they have in common. Men start to talk about things that are different about them. They also tend to talk more about things than persons, while women talk more about people and they tend to spend more words on people they like. On the other hand, women are more inconsistent: they have more hormonal changes each month, than a man has in his whole life.

When marketing products or services, you have to toss around these differences, and if your target is feminine, make your product human and help them relate to it through emotions, rituals, reflections of the things they value in their real lives. Women have higher expectations, as they tend shop more consciously. Small details, (shopping and also cultural) context, emotional engagement, meaning or nuances in the message are usually parameters that count when it comes to women’s shopping decisions.

Proud Member of:

Contact Details

This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation and your ability to provide feedback, analyse your use of our products and services, assist with our promotional and marketing efforts, and provide content from third parties. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms.

You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

disable

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site.

All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.

disable

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Targeting Cookies

These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites.

They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

disable

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!